The happy Zhao Erlang had just caught a theft gang and thrown them in jail. He headed straight for the county office dining hall.

Zhao Zheng had also just returned from outside, holding a large bowl of food. Seeing his county magistrate, he nodded and dove into the kitchen, emerging shortly with a basin of steamed buns and a bowl of vegetables.

He placed the basin and bowl on the railing, straddled it, and started eating rapidly with a bun in one hand and chopsticks in the other.

Zhao Zheng silently watched him, seeing him bite off nearly half a large bun, then stuff a mouthful of vegetables into his already full mouth, quickly chewing and swallowing…

Zhao Zheng suddenly felt even hungrier, but fearing he might choke, he still handed him a bamboo container of water.

Zhao Erlang didn’t want to drink water, but since it was from his cousin, he took it and reluctantly drank a sip before putting it down and continuing to devour the buns.

Zhao Zheng ate while asking, “You didn’t have lunch?”

Zhao Erlang squeezed out an “mm” sound.

His attendant Lu Hu also emerged from the kitchen. Hearing this, he explained, “To stake out this gang, we didn’t dare drink much water, afraid that if we blinked and missed them, they’d slip away.”

As he spoke, the bailiffs and personal guards who had lagged behind Zhao Erlang also returned, all diving into the kitchen for food. The small county office side courtyard quickly filled with squatting people.

Zhao Zheng had squatted on field ridges to eat, squatted roadside to eat, and even gnawed on flatbread in full view on the street, but squatting in the county office to eat still felt unnatural to him.

They clearly had the means to sit and eat properly. So Zhao Zheng urged Zhao Erlang, “The report requesting desks and seats for the county office was submitted to you long ago. Why haven’t you approved it?”

Zhao Erlang replied, “I did approve it.”

Zhao Zheng turned to look at Chief Clerk Yu not far away, who was eating with his head down. “Chief Clerk Yu, then why haven’t we bought them?”

Chief Clerk Yu looked up, expressionless. “The treasury has no money.”

He couldn’t hold back and gripped his chopsticks, saying with restraint, “The county magistrate has approved too many requests. Currently they’re all queued by priority, and the request for desks and seats is at the very back.”

Actually, Chief Clerk Yu himself very much wanted this done immediately. After all, this mainly improved the county office’s conditions. They couldn’t keep having the county magistrate and county deputy squat with them to eat, could they?

But every time he took the prioritized list to confirm with Zhao Erlang, he would remove this item, saying that since there was no money, these non-urgent matters should wait.

So it kept waiting and waiting. Many later-approved requests jumped ahead while it and the request to repair the county office roof remained at the very back.

Oh right, the county office originally had desks and seats for the county magistrate and deputy to sit and eat, but recently with so many external activities—matchmaking events, selling shops, residences, and land in Luoyang city, especially that area of ruins in the inner city—recently there were so many people inquiring and competing to buy that the county office was packed, crowding out much of the space for handling basic public affairs, making citizens who came for basic business afraid to enter.

So Zhao Zheng had people move all these activities outside to the plaza, with stalls lining the county office walls. There weren’t enough tables and chairs, so the desks and seats originally used by the magistrate and others for meals were also carried out.

Carrying them out was easy; bringing them back was hard.

So for over a month now, Zhao Erlang and Zhao Zheng had been squatting in the county office side courtyard eating with the bailiffs.

Zhao Zheng took a deep breath and asked Zhao Erlang, “Since you can’t allocate this money, why did you approve the request?”

“Sister said that everything that should be done should have an approval slip,” Zhao Erlang said, taking a bite of bun and thinking before adding, “But Sister also said county office matters have priorities too. Matters of life and death are most urgent, followed by people’s livelihood, then economy, and our own needs are least important, so they’re ranked last. I’m not being arbitrary.”

He was quite justified and reasonable.

Zhao Zheng sighed deeply. “Fine, let’s put aside the desks and seats, but bookshelves and document boxes can’t be delayed any longer. The county office documents are increasing, and there’s no place to store them now. Every time we need to find old cases, it takes a very long time. We need bookshelves and boxes to categorize them.”

Zhao Zheng said, “I also approved that request.”

Chief Clerk Yu gripped his chopsticks, gritting his teeth. “The treasury has no money~”

Zhao Zheng told Zhao Erlang, “You shouldn’t have turned over all the county’s tax revenue to the General. We clearly agreed to keep some for our own use.”

Zhao Erlang felt guilty. “But Sister was having such a hard time. She almost cried.”

Zhao Zheng was exasperated. Would Zhao Hanzhang cry? Would she cry over money?

That was all an act! County Magistrate, can’t you be more mature?

Zhao Zheng silently looked at him. Zhao Erlang felt terrible and said, “Then… then when I go home I’ll ask Sister to allocate some funds?”

Zhao Zheng finally smiled. “The county magistrate is deeply understanding. Then we’ll await your good news.”

Chief Clerk Yu also exhaled in relief.

Zhao Erlang only felt the pressure multiply, and the bun in his hand instantly lost its appeal.

Seeing his bun-eating speed drop dramatically, Zhao Zheng felt balanced and said cheerfully, “County Magistrate, you should have the General appoint a county lieutenant. You’re the county magistrate now; how can you do all the county lieutenant’s work?”

Chief Clerk Yu nearby nodded emphatically in agreement.

Zhao Erlang ignored him. He loved the county lieutenant’s work and had once wanted to give the magistrate position to Zhao Zheng and become the lieutenant himself. As for county deputy, let Chief Clerk Yu do it.

But he knew this was impossible. His sister would never agree. If his sister knew he’d pushed county affairs onto Zhao Zheng…

Zhao Erlang shivered, feeling his back—which had been sore since his sister pulled him into sparring practice and threw him down—aching faintly again.

Zhao Zheng saw him staying silent and turned to Lu Hu. “I’ve placed the documents the county magistrate needs to handle on his desk. Remember to read them to him.”

Zhao Erlang protested, “It’s already time to finish work. I… I need to go home and have dinner with Mother.”

Zhao Zheng’s gaze fell on the basin before him, then looked at the bun in his hand.

Zhao Erlang finally couldn’t eat anymore. He put down the bun and said, “I’m just tasting it, filling my stomach a bit. We still need to interrogate the people we arrested.”

Zhao Zheng grinned at him. “No problem. I’m working overtime tonight anyway. Let’s do it together.”

Why did the county office provide everyone’s dinner?

Not because the county office benefits were good, but because it was so busy. Only by providing meals would everyone voluntarily stay to work overtime.

Chief Clerk Yu had finished eating and stood up, leaving expressionlessly.

This wasn’t his first time serving as an official. During Emperor Hui’s time, he was already Yongzhou Chief Clerk. But because of grain famine in Yongzhou, when he and his family couldn’t survive there, he resigned and fled to Luoyang.

The Yu family was small but still aristocratic. He had been rated sixth rank back then, so after arriving in Luoyang and making arrangements, he found another minor official position. Later when Luoyang fell, he was a minor official who stayed to defend the city with the late emperor. He didn’t follow the late emperor’s relocation but remained, and later Zhao Hanzhang appointed him as Luoyang County Chief Clerk.

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